A recent thrift shop find was a very unusual 60 year old Japanese guitar. I bought it because I liked the funky look of it. A search by photo turned up some amazing facts that led me to this clip above of an Australian band from 1959 that featured rhythm by typewriter. That band was led by it’s star singer, Col Joye. He had a line of guitars made in Japan with his name on the label. This is one of them.
It resembles a French gypsy style guitar in construction, having an arched top with ladder bracing as well as a fret marker at the 10th fret. It sounds like a gypsy jazz guitar, very bright and loud. The rosette is a work of art, with delicate inlaid mother of pearl, seriously fancy for a presumably low cost item. The neck has no truss rod, but it does have an inlaid wood bar that acts as reinforcing. The neck did not warp or bow, but slowly bent from the heel over 60 years, as even the best of guitars often do.
I removed and reset the neck, made a new bridge and did a lot of fret levelling to make it playable. One site stated that Tommy Emmanuel owned a Col Joye as his first guitar. How this came to Canada beats me, as they were not sold here.
I found numerous videos of Col Joye and his band, but the one that amazed me was the performance of Oh Yeah, Uh Huh, which had a guy typing rhythm. The song is forgettable, to be kind, but the video should be priceless to typewriter aficionados. As for the guitar, it is the rarest guitar I have ever owned, and likely one of the few left in the world (just guessing).
Tommy Emmanuel, if you are out there, I will gladly trade you this guitar for one you own!
nathanguitars 